Social licencing in mining—between ethical dilemmas and economic risk management

Abstract

Mining comes at the price of environmental and social impacts. While minimising environmental impacts with a view to comply with regulatory requirements today is a standard procedure in mine business management, this is not necessarily so the case for social impacts. On the other hand, many societies today express their desire to participate in the decision-finding on the development of their physical and economic environment. A sustained and sustainable mine development requires the collaboration with the host communities concerned, which means that it has to be developed in a process commonly termed social licencing. However, a ‘social licence’ will not be granted once and for ever, but in fact is an evolving process, as the communities and their needs evolve. This paper examines the evolution of social licencing in the context of various ethical dilemmas and divergent norm and value systems of the different actors, such as host communities, mining companies and society as a whole. It also argues to make social licencing an integral element of business (risk) management for mining companies.